ISBN: 9798171977566 - what the desert takes: a novel of timbuktu (6 resultados)

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - Three Europeans leave Tripoli in 1850. Five years later, only one of them returns. based on true eventsHeinrich Barth is twenty-nine: brilliant, difficult, and obsessed with getting things exactly right.A Hamburg scholar attached to a British expedition, he is heading south into a region the size of Europe that European maps leave almost blank. He carries twelve pencils, empty not Elektronisches Buch, and a second name.Abd el-Kerim.As a Christian, he may not survive the road.Over the next five years, Barth will nearly die of thirst and cut open his own vein to drink. He will barter with sewing needles where coins are worthless, be robbed, imprisoned in irons, and ride beside a slave-raiding army because it is the only way into a country he is determined to see.He writes down everything.Then, in 1853, he reaches Timbuktu-a city from which few Europeans have returned alive. For eight months, a Muslim scholar named Ahmad al-Bakkay protects him from men who want him dead, argues theology with him, and opens to him something Europe scarcely expects to find there: books.Chronicles.A written history centuries old.But this is not only the story of the man doing the exploring.A thousand miles to the south, Dorugu is twelve years old when horsemen ride out of the dust and destroy his village. He is taken, marched in a wooden yoke, sold three times, and given new names by the men who own him.Eventually, one of Barth's companions buys his freedom.Dorugu becomes a servant, a translator, a traveler-and a witness.Barth measures rivers, kingdoms, prices, languages and stars.Dorugu watches the men who believe they are discovering his world.Years later, the two will reach Europe together. There, Dorugu will be stared at in drawing rooms, questioned by a king, and measured with calipers by a professor.Asked what has surprised him most about Europe, he gives an answer no explorer would think to record.The stairs.And far to the east, another young scientist is riding toward a forbidden mountain-and a death Europe will spend seventeen years trying to understand.Based on the documentary record of one of the most extraordinary journeys of the nineteenth century, What the Desert Takes is historical fiction about exploration, slavery, survival, knowledge-and what happens when the people being observed begin to observe back.It is the story of a man who tried to measure the world.And of a boy who knew that world before anyone thought to put it on a map.One counts the stars.The other never needed to.Nearly all of this happened.Historical fiction - African exploration - survival adventure - based on true events.…

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. In 1850 three men walk south out of Tripoli. Five years later one of them comes back. Heinrich Barth is twenty-nine, a Hamburg scholar with a doctorate nobody wanted and a talent for being right. He joins a British mission to end the slave trade by treaty, and he goes for his own reasons: south of the last oasis lies a country the size of Europe about which Europe knows nothing exact, and exact is the only word he has ever loved. What follows is five years of walking. He is robbed at the wells, held in irons in Bagirmi, lost on a mountain the Tuareg ride around, where he opens a vein in his own arm and drinks. He buries both his companions. He rides with a slave-raiding army because it is the only road into the country he wants to see, and he writes down what it does. And in September 1853 he becomes the first European in a generation to walk into Timbuktu and live - protected for eight months by a scholar who argues theology with him, feeds him, and keeps a city from cutting his throat. A thousand miles south, a boy named Dorugu is minding guinea fowl when riders come out of the dust. He is taken, yoked, marched, sold at Zinder, sold again to Kukawa, and given a new name each time. He will be bought out of slavery by a German with shaking hands, and he will end up in a Berlin drawing room while a professor measures his skull with calipers, being asked by a king what has struck him most about Europe. He says: the stairs. Two men crossing in opposite directions, and a third - a young astronomer sent east because Europe assumed Barth was dead - riding toward a town where a story is still being told about a stranger who would eat nothing but eggs. Based on the documentary record of one of the great journeys of the nineteenth century, What the Desert Takes is a novel about knowledge and what it costs - told with the hard eye and the black comedy of T. C. Boyle's Water Music and the propulsion of Buddy Levy's survival narratives. Nearly all of this happened. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Condición: New. Print on Demand.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Delivered from our UK warehouse in 4 to 14 business days. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. In 1850 three men walk south out of Tripoli. Five years later one of them comes back. Heinrich Barth is twenty-nine, a Hamburg scholar with a doctorate nobody wanted and a talent for being right. He joins a British mission to end the slave trade by treaty, and he goes for his own reasons: south of the last oasis lies a country the size of Europe about which Europe knows nothing exact, and exact is the only word he has ever loved. What follows is five years of walking. He is robbed at the wells, held in irons in Bagirmi, lost on a mountain the Tuareg ride around, where he opens a vein in his own arm and drinks. He buries both his companions. He rides with a slave-raiding army because it is the only road into the country he wants to see, and he writes down what it does. And in September 1853 he becomes the first European in a generation to walk into Timbuktu and live - protected for eight months by a scholar who argues theology with him, feeds him, and keeps a city from cutting his throat. A thousand miles south, a boy named Dorugu is minding guinea fowl when riders come out of the dust. He is taken, yoked, marched, sold at Zinder, sold again to Kukawa, and given a new name each time. He will be bought out of slavery by a German with shaking hands, and he will end up in a Berlin drawing room while a professor measures his skull with calipers, being asked by a king what has struck him most about Europe. He says: the stairs. Two men crossing in opposite directions, and a third - a young astronomer sent east because Europe assumed Barth was dead - riding toward a town where a story is still being told about a stranger who would eat nothing but eggs. Based on the documentary record of one of the great journeys of the nineteenth century, What the Desert Takes is a novel about knowledge and what it costs - told with the hard eye and the black comedy of T. C. Boyle's Water Music and the propulsion of Buddy Levy's survival narratives. Nearly all of this happened. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…